Pleistocene ziphodont crocodilians of Queensland

Abstract

The rostral portion of a crocodilian skull, from the Pleistocene cave deposits of Tea Tree Cave, near Chillagoe, north Queensland, is described as the type of the new genus and species, Quinkana fortirostrum. The form of the alveoli suggests that a ziphodont dentition was present. A second specimen, referred to Quinkana sp. from the Pleistocene cave deposits of Texas Caves, south Queensland, confirms the presence of ziphodont teeth. Isolated ziphodont teeth have also been found in eastern Queensland from central Cape York Peninsula in the north to Toowoomba in the south. Quinkana fortirostrum is a eusuchian, probably related to Pristichampsus. The environments of deposition of the beds yielding ziphodont crocodilians do not provide any evidence for (or against) a fully terrestrial habitat for these creatures. The somewhat problematic Chinese Hsisosuchus chungkingensis shows three apomorphic sebecosuchian character states, and is thus considered a sebecosuchian.

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